The number of tracking cookies on EU news sites has gone down by 22% according to a report by the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford, who looked at cookie usage across EU news sites in two phases, in April 2018 and July 2018, pre and post the introduction of the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In a plenary session of the European Parliament that will be held today in Strasbourg, France, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will vote on a motion for resolution which includes a clause to ban the use of software programs "that have been confirmed as malicious, such as Kaspersky Lab."

A new service called GDPR Shield is making the rounds this week and for all the wrong reasons. The service, advertised as a piece of JavaScript that webmasters embed on their sites, blocks EU-based users from accessing a website, just so the parent company won't have to deal with GDPR compliance.

The European Commission announced on Wednesday plans to cancel new registration and domain renewals for .eu domains owned by British citizens. EU citizens residing in the UK are also barred from registering or renewing domains.

Germany's Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), the country's telecommunications agency, has banned the sale of children's smartwatches after it classified such devices as "prohibited listening devices."

The European Union (EU) has voted on Tuesday to pass the new Consumer Protection Cooperation regulation, a new EU-wide applicable law that gives extra power to national consumer protection agencies, but which also contains a vaguely worded clause that also grants them the power to block websites without judicial oversight.

Officials reminded everyone this week that governments in the US and UK have not given up on their efforts to force tech companies to provide encryption backdoors, despite previous attempts being shut down following public outcry.

A document leaked at the end of August reveal that Estonia — currently holding the EU Presidency — is pushing fellow member states to adopt more intrusive Internet content filtering rules, similar to the ones implemented in China.

To combat electronic waste and abusive practices like manufacturers legally preventing users from repairing their devices, the EU is preparing legislation that would legalize a customer's "right to repair," and would force vendors to design products for longer life and easier maintenance.

The European Commission has hit Google with a record fine of €2.42 billion ($2.72 billion) for abusing its dominant market position and tweaking search results to favor its Google Shopping service to the detriment of its direct competitors.

The European Commission, through the voice of EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova, announced plans to find a way for law enforcement to access data exchanged via encrypted instant messaging services, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and others.

EU's main privacy watchdog has expressed displeasure with Microsoft's new privacy controls that the company announced last month and plans to ship with Windows 10 Creators Update, scheduled for launch later in April.

The European Union announced today an agreement between various regulating bodies and mobile carriers that will help eliminate in most part roaming charges across the EU space starting with June 15, 2016.

The European Commission is currently debating new legislation that will overhaul some of the EU e-privacy rules, including the hated cookie consent popups that have ruined the web experience for many users.